Thursday December 2nd 2010

Last Wednesday to Friday I attended the GEPIK (Gyeonggi Province English Program in Korea) Winter Orientation. It was basically a three day, 2 night conference, where they talked about everything from classroom management to things to know about living and working in Korea. Given this is the internet I am not going to spend too much time deconstructing the program and what I though of it...instead I thought I would just mention some of the fun parts! I think the best part was getting to meet a whole lot of other people from similar areas, when I say people I mean foreigners, and when I say similar areas we may be in the same province but you can travel for 3-4 hours and still be in the same province!

There were a few people though who are a lot of fun, and through facebook it will be easy to keep in touch! It was also good to be able to share the different experiences with co-teachers etc. and what we are all required to do by the school. Some people have to submit full lesson plans a week in advance, and teach from the text book, while other literally just show up to class and don't have to prepare anything. I think I have the happy medium as far as that is concerned - I don't have to worry about lesson plans and I don't have to teach from the textbook - they just show up to my classroom (I see each class group once per week) and they expect me to be prepared and ready to go which I always am!

 Was really interesting to hear some of the stories about other people's co-teachers as well and what they go through, most people only seem to have 1 or 2 co-teachers (I have 5) but some people seem to have really bad experiences, or difficult people they have to work with. I guess I have 1 teacher who is a little up and down (ok...a lot up and down) but I also have a couple who are awesome to work with. I am also really happy with the area I am in, a lot happier after speaking with the other teachers, some of whom are stranded out in the middle of the countryside with no big shops or other foreigners in sight. I can see the appeal of being left alone on occasion, but I think it would get very lonely, and very tiring never being able to speak English at a normal speed!

 One of the really interesting things that was talked about a lot, and I had heard it before the Orientation, was how strange it was being surrounded by other foreigners. It almost gets to be too much, you are so used to never really understanding what is being said and being able to just tune out and be in your own little world, so to all of a sudden be surrounded by people when you can understand what they are saying gets very noisy! There were many times when you would see people (especially those who had been here for a long time) just wander away from the group a bit and stare off into space, or disappear up to their rooms for some quiet time.

I think that maybe this life makes you a little too accustomed to having your own space and being left alone - I know that by the end of the three days I was completely drained and just wanted to hide from the world and not talk to anyone! Other than talking to people I also really enjoyed the calligraphy class that I attended, it was run by the loveliest older lady, who was very encouraging even though she couldnt speak a word of english! She had an assistant to help translate if it was needed, but you could figure out what she was saying most of the time from her expressions and body language. She wrote a few things on the board for us to copy down and then you could make special requests if you wanted her to write something specific so that you could copy it...it was so much fun! All that was missing really was music, a few of us talked about the fact that we needed some nice calming, meditation-type music!

The opening ceremony was also pretty cool, with some traditional dance done by guys with long ribbons attached to their hats...and wow, the things they could do with those ribbons! (Wish I had taken photos of that!) There was also one particularly good session on classroom management... I did a whole semester on classroom management at uni and this guy summed it up better in an hour (my uni was a joke...and this guys was great...lol.) he even through some teaching terminology in there which made me feel very knowledgeable! Friday night was fairly quiet, a nice dinner, and a reasonably early night!

From memory Saturday was pretty quiet as well - during the day anyway! Saturday night we headed into Gangnam in Seoul, started with Burger King (Hungry Jacks) for dinner, which is always thrilling because the burgers are quality and the closest Burger King to me is Suwon which is quite a distance to go for a burger! After the burger we made a quick stop at Krispy cream for a doughnut and coffee (this is why I am getting fat!) and then headed on to the Hippy Bar... The Hippy Bar (which may or may not have an actual name) was definitely an experience! We smoked apple tobacco through a hookah and drank buckets of singapore slings...very very strong buckets, they were not shy at all about the alcohol!

For the first little while we were there, there was a really terrible band playing, but fortunately they finished after about 30 mins! Then the place felt a lot more chilled out - and it's a hippy bar right, it's supposed to be chilled out! It was Korean style in the fact that all the tables were low to the ground, you sat on cushions, you had to take your shoes off when you come in... oh and one of the best things about Korea?? When you go into a place where you must sit on the floor they provide little blankets for the women so that if you are wearing a skirt nothing is visible! Brilliant!

So we stayed at the hippy bar for quite a while, lounging around on the floor, feeling very much like hippies...then tried to catch the bus back to Suwon. Missed the bus by about 2 minutes... enjoyed some Korean street food, and hopped in a taxi, bound for the No rae bang (singing room) at about 1am...yes they are still open and they still let you in! At the no rae bang we all sang till we were hoarse (I had a go at "the real slim shady" which left me out of breath but I was feeling pretty proud of!) and then kept singing! I really feel for the people who run those things because they sit out the front and you can hear like a medley of all the atrocious singing from all the different individual rooms - surely they would think about investing in better sound-proofing just to protect their sanity?!

We almost literally stumbled out of the no rae bang at 3ish... so slept around 4 / 4:30ish...and then got up at 8 am to get organised for some shopping in the technology district! Again we started at Suwon, and caught the regular train out to Yongsan. Wow! This place was incredible... and I spent a small fortune! Mostl due to the fact that I bought a new phone, some really nice snow boots, and a PS3 with 2 games and an extra controller etc... Though I have to say for those of you that know about this stuff... I got the PS3 console, extra controller, COD black Ops, the new Grand Turismo and an HD cable for about $390...hehe...not bad huh?! I love my new phone too...seriously cute and substantially bigger than the little stone age thing I was using before! And I really will need the snow boots... especially because it snowed that night! 

That's right! My first snow in Korea! The first time I have seen snow in about 8 years! I was so excited that I stuck my head out the window of my fourth floor apartment and watched it fall for about 20 minutes, by which time I realised that my apartment was freezing and I couldn't feel my fingers or my nose...oops! Worth it though! I have been really disappointed that it hasnt snowed since then... I keep hoping! But it is not due to snow again till next week, either way I took photo's of the snow the next morning as evidence that it really happened, and I was thrilled when the snow was still there at mid-day the next day - which just goes to show how freezing it is here! Fortunately this morning I figured out how to turn the heating on in my classroom - it is controlled by a central switch in the main office - but when they turn it on I still have to turn it on in my classroom to get it to work!
Sunday by the time I got home I was positively exhausted... played my new PS3 for less than 30 minutes and then went to sleep! I almost forgot special mentions for the week! Karel and Jaco for getting a score of 100% at the No Rae Bang on a bee gees song! Ashleigh and myself for getting a score of 100% on a Kelly Clarkson song...lol. All of the above for helping me secure my new phone and PS3! Rosie, for being a legend and moving to Osan! Meresa for being hilarious... I will never look at a dove the same way again!

 Fortunately this week has been / is pretty cruisy! The students all have exams, so yesterday, today, and tomorrow I have no class - I just get to sit in my classroom (which is now warm) and do "preparation work"... hehe. I have worked out next weeks classes, and I have spent plenty of quality time on facebook and youtube...and very shortly I may watch an episode or two of Grey's Anatomy (which I have recently become a little addicted to because I have been watching it from the beginning!) so all in all life is pretty good right now... and Friday night I get my fix of Budae jjigae which will make me very happy...and now that Jisan is finally open we can go snowboarding on Sat! Anyway...must go and do some "work"! Totsiens!